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The aim of this article is to assess Italy's behaviour in the framework of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the United Nations Human Rights Council, both as a recommending state and as a state under review. The UPR is a peer review mechanism launched in 2008, through which all UN member states can make recommendations to each other regarding human rights practices. Drawing on role theory, liberal and constructivist institutionalism, and the two-level game approach, the analysis reveals that Italian decision-makers played parallel games at the domestic and international tables of the UPR, and managed to adapt country's human rights foreign policy goals according to the different social contexts where they operated. Indeed, while in the review phase in Geneva, Italy sought legitimacy for both its policies and its status as an international 'human rights friendly' actor, at domestic level a policy of inactivity was chosen, in order to minimize the impact of the most costly UPR recommendations, and protect the dynamics of domestic politics. The time-span of the analysis covers the first 19 UPR sessions (2008–14), broadly coinciding with Italy's first two membership terms at the Human Rights Council.

The literature includes numerous analyses of the role played by regional organizations during the Arab Spring. However, the emerging role played by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), as the only truly intra-regional pan-Mediterranean institution, has not been sufficiently explored. This essay helps fill this gap by assessing the parliamentary diplomacy activities performed by PAM vis-à-vis the Arab Spring countries between 2011 and 2016. A comparative perspective is adopted, using the literature on the European Parliament (EP) as the point of reference. This approach allows one to grasp how the EP and PAM have reacted to common problems and challenges affecting the Mediterranean and identifies possible overlaps and divisions of labor between the two international parliamentary institutions.

One of the main functions of international parliamentary institutions (ipis) consists of conducting parallel diplomatic relations, known as parliamentary diplomacy, especially in the fields of peace-building, crisis management and democracy promotion. The effectiveness of this form of so-called 'parliamentarization' of international relations is often called into question, and can only be judged through systematic empirical work. This article aims at contributing to this debate by exploring the parliamentary diplomacy activities performed by one of the most prominent parliamentary actors in Euro–Mediterranean relations: the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (pam). What kinds of tools has pam adopted to implement its parliamentary diplomacy function? What is the impact of pam's parliamentary diplomacy? The article considers the following elements: legal and policy instruments; institutional features; functions performed while in session; activities directly addressing the national level; and parliamentary diplomacy as such. The period encompassed by the analysis ranges from 2006 to 2014.

Interest in the role of International Parliamentary Institutions (IPIs) remains extremely limited, especially if one considers their growing numbers, functions, and importance in the international relations of a globalizing world. This article aims at contextualizing the European Parliament (EP)'s international role according to the IPIs literature, by asking whether the EP can be included in comparative studies on IPIs or, on the contrary, if it should rather be considered a 'sui generis' phenomenon - because of its role in European Union (EU) integration and the scope of its powers. Our argument is that the EP can (and should) be included in comparative studies on IPIs, at least for two different reasons: (i) by exploring conditions under which IPIs are established and empowered; (ii) by analysing the EP's external relations. As a result, both the literature on IPIs and that on the external dimension of the EP will be enriched and allow for more, including synergetic, work in areas where there still is a clear academic gap. Accordingly, there will be three different sections. The first section will offer the background empirical description of what IPIs are, what their historical evolution has been, as well what are the more relevant definitions and categorizations offered by the literature to date. In the following section, the main argument will be developed, through the operationalization of IPIs' different powers. After a brief presentation of the specific tools that the EP has been developing over the years in its external relations, the third section will focus on its inter-parliamentary assemblies. Finally, the conclusions will sum up some general findings, as well as identify a number of possible avenues for future research on the role of IPIs in world affairs.

The European Union´s diplomacy has always given great importance and attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One key element in it is the question of the recognition of a Palestinian state. This article analyses this particular issue now that Sweden has recognized such a state, but it does so not only by looking at EU institutions and states: it also covers the reactions of three national parliaments: those of Spain, Italy and Greece. Thus, adding both to the literature on EU diplomacy and to that of parliamentary diplomacy, which is an emerging academic area of research. ; La diplomacia de la Unión Europea siempre ha prestado mucha atención al conflicto palestinoisraelí. Uno de los elementos clave en ello es el reconocimiento de un estado palestino. Este artículo analiza este aspecto en particular ahora que Suecia ha reconocido tal estado, pero lo ha hecho no solo teniendo en cuenta a las instituciones y estados de la UE: también cubre las reacciones de tres parlamentos nacionales: los de España, Italia y Grecia. Por tanto, este artículo enriquece tanto a los estudios sobre la diplomacia de la UE como a los de la diplomacia parlamentaria, lo que es un área emergente en la investigación académica.